Russell Means, to director Michael Mann, had always symbolized the courage and determination of indigenous people fighting for their rights. But before Mann cast Means in his Oscar-winning 1992 movie “The Last of the Mohicans,” he wasn’t sure if the charisma of the famed activist would translate to the big screen.

Means, an Oglala/Lakota Sioux Indian who became an activist for American Indian rights, passed away today at the age of 72 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Known for being a prominent member of the American Indian Movement and for his leadership when AIM members occupied Wounded Knee, S.D., as a political statement in 1973, Means was also an actor, appearing in such films as “Natural Born Killers” (1994), and lending his voice to the Disney animated movie “Pocahontas” (1995).

But it was Means’s role as Chingachgook in “The Last of the Mohicans” that was his breakthrough into Hollywood. Based on the book by James Fenimore Cooper, the movie grossed more than $75.5 million at the domestic box office, according to the movie site Box Office Mojo.

Speakeasy talked to Mann this afternoon about working with Means on “Last of the Mohicans.”

Two weeks ago, actress and singer Patti LuPone grabbed a cell phone out of the hand of an audience member who was texting during a performance of her current play, "Shows for Days." The bold move led to an outpouring of support from fans fed up with glowing screens. Ms. LuPone gives us her five rules of theater etiquette.